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Good morning!
Very nice job with the teeter entries! The wings were definitely the right choice to get her started as a aid to find the line. And the MM on a ladder at the top is brilliant đ She seemed very confident to run up the board!When you revisit this, you can maybe turn them on their sides to start fading them without her jumping over them. Hopefully we never see this entry on course but it is still good to get her to line herself up with less help from the wings đ
Nice work!
TracyGood morning!
The blinds went really well on the first video! His commitment looked really strong and your line and timing looked good too!
The 1st blind rep was good! The 2nd blind rep was great in terms of timing and connection! You started it earlier than the other blinds and finished it sooner, making for a tighter turn.The others were more in line with the first blind in terms of timing and connection – really good! The 2nd blind is my favorite đ and you can definitely keep playing with starting them earlier like you did on the 2nd rep here.
Because he is fast and small, you will find it easier to make and maintain the connection if you use the arm across the body on the exit of the blind so you donât have to open your shoulder back up to him as much. So in this case, he is approaching the wing on your right – after you do. The blind, put your right hand on your left hip as you look back to him and youâll find you can see hm a lot better.
Looking at the 2nd video – the first rep as a BC to a FC on the middle wing, very nice! The 2nd rep was a BC then a post turn on the middle wing, which worked but then you changed it to a spin on the 3rd rep, which worked better đ
When you switched to your left was harder like you mentioned – your muscles really wanted to turn towards him so it ended up looking like a spin.
The key difference between the blind and the spin is the turning away (blind) versus the turning towards of the spin. So when you revisit this, you can use a reminder word like âawayâ on the blinds to remember to turn away and not accidentally do spins if you want blinds. Or, pick a wing to turn away to look at as you start the blind.
You can also make more connection on the tunnel exit – but I think that you were thinking about the handling move so looking forward more than usual, so no worries :). The connection will come back when you are happy with the blinds on your left.
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>>I committed horrible verbal crimes,
Ha! It is only a crime if he gets blamed for it LOL!
He is paying attention to verbals though: note at 1:05 on the first video you were saying the ârightâ verbal and never said a backside verbal⌠so he took the right turn and did not continue out to the backside. What a good boy!!
He had some great lightbulb moments here – a couple of questions about coming in to the jump early in the session but you clarified it for him by slowing down and making your serp arm more obvious. Yo can even shake your serp arm a bit, that can help him lock on.
Once he saw that though, he had it and was great. But he also was perfect when you asked for the FC wrap on the wing.
He is doing great with his grid! The distance is good for now (we can change it as he continues to mature, if needed).
He is working out his mechanics really well. You can click the reward dispenser as soon as you say the release, so he comes up the line with this head forward and more down (looking at the reward and not at you). And also, since his stay looked amazing, you can move to the moving target reward – this will also get his looking more forward and downwards and less up at you (he loves da momma!)
>>Proudest moment was when on rep3 I called out the âcatchâ cue instead of the release and he knew there was a cookie about to fly his way so he didnât move
That was hilarious! And he was licking his lips in anticipation. What a smart boy!!!!
>>The pool noodles are split lengthwise and wrapping around a jump bar, hair ties are pretty great way to keep them from popping off the bar!>>
That is brilliant! I love it!!!
Great job here đ
TracyGood morning!
I am sorry to hear about the crud! I hope you are feeling better!The blinds are going well!! Nice connection and timing!!
>>I will do the race track and then blinds next.>>
I think you will find the race tracks into the blinds even easier- the blind were hard when you were too far ahead (there was a FC and she came off the line ti the wing on one rep). When you were moving into the blind, it went great (like the first rep). The race tracks bring so much speed that you will probably not be ahead and landing still LOL!
Good job on the rears out of the tunnel!
At :35 you ran a good line, but she looked at you because you were relatively stationary when she exited the tunnel. On this setup, you can run all the way into and along the curve of the tunnel so you donât need to stand still at all.
You had more movement at :47 and that totally helped! You gave her a shoulder pull as you said right – the shoulder pull said âturn leftâ so she looked at you. You donât need the shoulder pull at all, so you can leave your dog side arm low and pointing to her nose as you run to the center of the bar on the RC line (she will blast past you :))
Great job here!!
Tracy
Hi!
I am sorry to hear about your migraine, that stinks!! I hope you are feeling better!!!The diamond game is going well⌠you and Vesper are turning into a fast, connected team!!!
The wraps on the wing after the tunnel – super nice! You were connected and decelerated so she knew to commit AND turn tight.
On the first race track after tunnel – you decelerated on the first wing and Vesper and I both thought you wanted a wrap đ The race track was better on the 2nd run, but I think we can get it to where you can just run and donât need to point at each wing. You can start by moving the wings in a little closer together so you can just jog around with your arms bent like a sprinter (or dog-side arm down & back) and reward her for staying on her line out around the wings. Then you can add more and more speed to the race track, then more and more distance. She will enjoy thee, they are perfect for whippets LOL!!!
>>I tell myself to do that before I start and I think Iâm doing it but the video says otherwise>>
That is completely relatable LOL!!!! And that is why we reward the dog when there is a blooper because what I *think* I did and what I *actually* did are generally two completely different things đ
Great job here!!
Tracy
Good morning!
He is doing well with the find the jump game! It was easier for him to find the jump on your left than it was on your right (2nd video) so it might be time to work him more on your right side, so you cam connect more and he gets more experience on that side.
On both sides – you can throw reward sooner on all of these (as soon as he looks at the jump, which will also help your connection because you have to be looking at him to see where he is looking đ)I think it will be easier if you use a toy (tug toy or food toy like a lotus ball) as well – the cookie was hard for him to track, so he was looking at your hands a lot so he could see the hand movement (and even then, didnât always see the cookie). A toy will be much more visible and will lock him onto the jump even more.
<>Mason lied down before the last rep to tell me that he was done, but I asked him for one more rep. Iâll try to pay more attention to stopping when heâs done in the future.>>
Try to stop before he is done đ Do 4 or 5 reps and be finished before he says he wants a break.
Great job with your connection on the BC figure 8 video!!! WOW!! Those are hard to pull off and you used connection very effectively to the info to him. Super!!!
Looking at he 2nd video:
<>Annie and I always used to get refusals on wraps and it seems Iâm transferring that tendency to Mason. On the few times when I got the wrap on the far wing,>>
What was happening that caused the refusals at :05, :42 and :54 was that even though you got close to the wing you hit the brakes really hard and didnât really connect. That is missing the deceleration which is the actual commitment element of the cue. He did get it at :54 so reward immediately (then question yourself if you want LOL!)
Compare to :13 and :27 where you did have deceleration after the cross and before you rotated: he nailed it! So think of it as running fast, then deceleratingâŚ. And then rotating. No rush to rotate.
>>we missed the next race track wing which was probably supposed to be easy.
By adding the cross on the top wing, you added complexity there đ
To get the next wing, show more the big arm-back connection and run towards it rather than point forward – reward him if he misses or keep going, because stopping and *not* rewarding makes the assumption that is is a dog error when in fact it is handler error 99% of the time đđ¤Ł
You were finishing the cross and then looking forward/pointing forward so he was unsure of the line. Connection and motion towards it will make it smoother.
>>Also, on this sequence I noticed that the tunnel was getting all out of shape when Mason was going through it, which was pretty scary to see on the video. One time I heard him slip while he was in the middle, but I canât remember which rep that was. Is he doing something weird inside the tunnel, like banking too high off the side? Do I just need more bags?>>
Two things will keep the tunnel safer:
– stretch it out fully through curve, UKI-style, so there are no hard angles in the tunnel.
– yes, more tunnel bags and also heavier tunnel bag. There should be enough bags on the tunnel and they should be heavy enough that you find them to be a giant pain in the butt LOL!!! (Believe me, I have a deep hatred for hauling tunnel bags LOL!)I follow the UKI rules for tunnels. The UKI rule is 1 set of bags for every 3 feet of tunnel, at a minimum. I know other venues donât require the # of bags or weight of bags or stretched curves of the tunnel, but having just come off of the UKI invitational where we bagged the daylights out of the tunnel, there were very few issues with all of the fast, powerful dogs running through those tunnels.
Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
Yes! These were blinds đ You were definitely turning away on just about all of these AND you got your verbals in too. SUPER!!! If the weather is clear, try it outside so you can run into it – you will want to walk it first without him to get the turning away from him into your muscles because it is easy to default to turning towards the dog when we are running.
Looking at the ladder grid:
His stay is coming along! I think he was releasing when you looked towards him on the earlier parts of the video, because you were looking towards him and saying the release at basically the same time. He got better later in the video, but we donât want to muddy the waters at all so be sure to look at him the whole time you lead out and then say the release after multiple steps, so they are not paired together.Because the stay is still a work in progress and you were not able to get all the way past ump 3 before releasing him – you can do stay work on one jump, but donât use if for the ladder grid yet because he looks at you as you move alongside of him (rather than process his jumping mechanics). We can add the ladder back in when he can stay while you go all the way past jump 3.
Nice work here!!
TracyThreadle wrapping is going well! You slowed down your motion a bit so he could organize his turning away and that was very helpful. One suggestion to get him to be even more independent: can throw the reward behind you back to the âlandingâ side of the wing, as if there was a bar there.
As you add more speed, you can call his name before he goes into the tunnel so he exits in handler focus, which will make the threadle wrap even easier đ
The right turn side looked like it felt less smooth for you so definitely add more right side practice đ Good job dropping the reward to the âlandingâ spot here!!! You can also add in moving forward while you do that good reward placement so that he doesnât need you to step back to the landing spot at all.
One thing to add is to make connection to his eyes even as you do the threadle wraps – when you do that, he gets it every time! If you look ahead or push into his line, he goes to the other side of the wing based on the motion and connection (like at 1:22 on the 2nd video). Compare to 1:37 when you were much more connected, which really helped him get it.
He did well targeting here! I like that he is offering a bit of a crouch/bow because that will translate to a good weight shift on the actual teeter. And it is fine to look at you in this game because you are directly in front.
One suggestion:
I think the target might be a little small for the goal of both feet getting on it – he has to squish his front feet together and doesnât quite have room to get them both on comfortably. You can double the size of it by adding another one and I think that will be perfect!!Great job here!
TracyGood morning!
She is finding the lines well in the diamond game! Were you saying her name or left on the blinds on the wing? I think you were using her name but it was hard to tell LOL!!!
As the handling gets more complex (and also with the bigger distances and increased distractions from being outdoors), you can ramp up your connection more on these – you can have more direct eye contact on the exit of the wraps and on the way to the tunnel, for example. If your shoulders are a little closed forward (like at 2:09) she drifts a bit wider waiting for more info, or on the way to the tunnel at 2:15 she bounced up at you. So exaggerating the connection so she can really see your eyes (and therefore the line of your shoulders too) will help smooth all of that out.
>>Started out with the toy and then she decided she would prefer cheese which of course is harder to find in the grass!>>
Yes, she had opinions LOL!! It is possible that she didnât like the stopping and turning towards her to present the toy after the blind and at :47? Too much pressure, not enough running? So you can try to keep running and throw it forward ahead of you both for her to chase (like you did at the tunnel exit at the beginning) . She didnât chase it when you tossed it for the next tunnel exit, but I think she was not quite able to bounce back from her opinion moment there. Going to cheese was good! And of course starting/ending a session with toy play but using food in the session is great too!
Find the jump is going well!
>>Had some feelings about the wrap before the tunnel.
I think those were connection questions too, about the wrap cue and the tunnel cue – you are facing froward a bit more which doesnât show quite enough connection on the wrap send and tunnel send, with the increased distances and distractions. More to process in the environment, so she needs super exaggerated connection for now.
But on the flip side:
>>Iâm not doing a very good job of connecting out of the tunnel there.>>
Yes, you can connect more after the tunnel but part of the joy of this game is to help them find the jump when we are not as perfect LOL! Just be connected enough to be sure she is locked onto the jump before you mark & toss the reward. The one blooper was a little too much disconnection and she was following you more closely there.
But overall she is doing everything exactly right: find the jump as da human runs up the line. Yay!!
>>I also let Kaladin do the Find jump with the bump and his frizzer for the Go while I hung back by the tunnel. He thought that was a lot of fun.
Perfect! Does Lift like to chase the friz too? She seems ready for you to emphasize more driving ahead of you now too.
>>What is it about Nashville and road construction and/or traffic? Seems like we get held up there each time heading to JAX.>>
The whole area of Chattanooga, Nashville, AtlantaâŚ. That is a doozy of traffic! I got lucky and didnât get much traffic in Atlanta though, so I will take it LOL!
>>For serp/threadle proofing and moving towards center of bar: Which direction should she be facing in the sit? towards the jump or tunnel?>>
Good question! When you get into the harder angles, she can be facing the jump for now. On. The harder serp angles, she can be facing the serp side of the bar which makes the exit line harder. And for the threadle reps, you can have her on the serp side of the bar but facing the threadle line (so her back would be to the tunnel, basically) That still has big challenges. And if she thinks that is fine and dandy, you can do the threadle challenges with her facing the serp part of the bar đ
Great job here đ
Tracy
Hi!
This had a lot of great info for sure!!I think the main thing here is to show her the information a lot sooner (both physical can verbal cues). She is very forward on the line and. That is *great* đ So she probably needs her exit line info a solid 6 to 8 feet before she enters the tunnel – this is especially important because she is so inexperienced and needs extra processing time to hear/see the cues and respond to them.
The other thing that is interesting here is that steady motion is still a forward cue to her, even if it is decelerated and steady like on the first rep.
The other reps where she went wide or to the straight line jump like at :11 and particularly at :17 especially had parallel line motion and acceleration, so she was peripherally seeing all that and responding to it. Looking at the rep at :17 for example: the timing of your verbal was very good!! The physical cue didnât match it and that is why she went to the straight jump. The physical cue turned straight before she entered the tunnel and then you accelerated as she exited. Ideally, when you say the verbal you would also turn and face the turn line to match the verbal to the physical cue. And she did do a wrap as cued on the straight line jump!
Compare to :25 where the verbal was timely as well! The physical cue was not as well-timed as. The verbal but you still showed it to her before she entered, so she got the turn on the exit. Yay!
Now the challenge is to be able to do that at a run! I think the main thing will be to think about transitions: accelerate into it so then she can see you decelerate and turn while saying the verbal – aim for 10 feet before she gets into the tunnel.
The angle video in the 2nd part of the video was great!! We can freeze the video and have a great picture of where she is when you are delivering the cues⌠and she was basically in the tunnel (her head was in the tunnel or inches from it, which makes the cues late in terms of processing time).
For example, at 1:10, 1:32, 1:43 – she did not see he change in line or really hear the verbal before her head got into the tunnel then there was motion forward.
>>The last few reps were supposed to be rear crosses. I even stopped and tried to review the demo video but I think I was overthinking completely â obviously since I wasnât even doing a rear cross hahahah>>
Ah! Yes, they were same side exits, not rears LOL! To get the rear crosses, start very very close to the wing so you can drive the RC pressure line right behind her tail so she sees and hears the cues while she is still 8 feet from the tunnel entry. The goal is that as her head arrives at the tunnel, you are basically finished with the RC and visible on the new side.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think! â¨Tracy
Good morning! She is doing really well finding her lines on the serpy stuff here!
Even though the angled lines at the beginning after the tunnel are not all that hard for her, try to rehearse the arm back/open shoulder of the serp rather than pointing forward ahead of her . That gives her the picture of your lower body running while your upper body is rotated, and associating that with the in-and-out of the seps.
When adding the sequence (starting at :29) – do a spin on the tunnel entry đ and then handle the serp with dog in right (on landing side of the jump after the tunnel) to make it more of a serp. You were on the outside of the line so it had some challenge for her but being on the landing side will definitely add a strong serp challenge for her.
You can do the same with the mirror image sequence starting at :55, getting on landing side of the jump after the tunnel)
>>I probably sabotaged myself with the distance>>
Yes, I think that was part of it and also it changed the lines. The exit of the tunnel was set on a hard line to the jumps so she needed a turn cue before she entered. That made it a bit harder to navigate the lines and stay in motion. For example, at 1:08 you had a very subtle step to the backside so that is where she went. Good girl Lu! That will serve you well in the future on those big UKI courses!!
One other thing I notice with her is she is very responsive to her markers đ She goes to the reward as soon as you say it. At 1:37 – give yourself a window to see before you say âget itâ so she is definitely taking the jump, such as waiting until her feet are in the air. She was coming to the jump here but not quite taking off yet⌠you said get it so she did LOL!!! That happened on one of the early reps too – and if you mark a behavior, be sure to reward it anyway so the marker doesât lose strength. Delaying the marker will help her not bypass a jump to get the toy.
Changing the jump angle at 1:53 coming down the line to the tunnel totally helped and so did your lead out position (not as far up the line). You can lead out less and do it more as a serp in motion!
Nice work here!
TracyGood morning from lovely Florida!!
I almost snorted coffee out my nose on the first rep of the first video hen she smacked the crate with typical Bazinga emphasis LOL!!
She does like that a crate a whole lot and finding the tunnel was *hard*! But then in the first video I think she got into a loop of âdo whatever was most recently rewardedâ and at the beginning of the 2nd video too.
>>I changed the way I was saying âcrateâ to be more like my âjumpâ verbal and less loud & fast like my tunnel verbal.>>
I think that was GREAT and totally helps – I am not fully confident that dogs can distinguish the actual word⌠but I am definitely confident they can distinguish word + pitch + rhythm + context! It sounded totally different by the end of the 2nd video and she did well.
The other thing that might be locking into place is the discrimination concept: the possibility that it could be *either* of those objects and she has to process the verbal (and your position, to a lesser degree) to get the reinforcement. That is a brain bender for dogs! So keep practicing like you ended here and she will keep improving đ
Winginâ It video:
>>I have a question about the collection cue you mentioned. We havenât trained a collection cue yet. How would I introduce that? Is it something like âwhoaâ or âeasyâ for the verbal with a decel body language?>>
I was just being unclear LOL!!! Sorry! The collection cues match the turn you want from the dog – left/right or wraps, for example. I do use a âjumpâ verbal for very casual collection that is too wide for left/right, but there is no additional collection verbal needed. The wrap here worked perfectly.
For the tunnel threadles – great job letting her turn herself and drive to the tunnel rather than relying on an addition l cue from you!! Yay! She was great and that is exactly what we want. When you added the wings, yes the FC put you on the wrong side for a few reps but you had it at the end and she went to the tunnel threadle very independently. Super! You can add more running to this: can she still find the tunnel threadle when there is more motion?
>>I think I am fine with just the crouch/play bow and not the chin touch since the teeter will have some kick-back when it is in motion.
Yes, and the chin touch might actually pull her weight forward into her shoulders and we donât want that. So crouch/bow and low chin will be perfect! The other thing I like to do with a 4on and small dogs is to teach them to dig at the target. That gives them something fun to do while waiting the decades it takes for the board to drop, and it keeps their weight back. Does she like to dig at all?
>>But I am guessing that we try to keep as much of the down position as we can and let her fade it as needed as she gets used to the motion once that is introduced?>>
Yes – she will give us feedback about what works best in terms of position as the board is moving.
She did great on the video! She was alternating between a flat down and a bit of a bow but that might have been your position in front of her. You can use the target at the top of the mountain climber game and see how she feels about being that high off the ground and getting into position – that is probably what will happen when she is doing the full teeter!
Since she is doing so well with you in front of her, check out the Bang Game as the next step – it basically begins to move you off to the side where you will be when running the full teeter.
The lead outs are going well! Great job pumping up the value with all the reinforcement! She read it really well! Running into the blind was easy for her – you can be even more lateral as you move to jump 3 so she reads the position cue even sooner.
She had more trouble with the lead out to the throw back with you all the way at jump 3. When you leaned in towards jump 2 at the end of video 1 and video 2, she got it really well!!!! The bigger visual with you leaning must have made your feet more obvious to her so she found it really well.
The lead out push definitely made 1-2 very obvious! To support 3 more, I think all you need t add is a clearer connection when she lands from 2. You were looking forward to 3 which turns you shoulders past it a bit. If you keep your arm back (think of it as a crazy serpentine) and look at her eyes, then you will be showing the line with your shoulders and she should nail it đ
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
Good morning!
Is your marker âpaydayâ? I love it!! Clever!!!
The session looked GREAT!!! This is such a hard skill and he is doing it very independently both towards you and away from you with very few errors. He was also able to do it with you moving the other direction (countermotion!) which is a super useful skill. And he could do it from the neutral position. Happy dance!! Great job building up to that!!!
The next thing to do with this game is simply change to using a toy reward. That will change his internal state, I believe – higher arousal đ And that is a good thing, because when you are running real courses we will want him to be able to process the verbals when he is more aroused. Many, many dogs struggle with that so I like to add the arousal in early enough that they are very good at processing verbals even when they are pumped up.
So start with easy reps with a toy reward, and see how he does with it. If it is easy for him, you can add the harder positions and turn aways. If he has questions, keep the toy in the picture (because it is an arousal question) but stick to the easier levels until he is very solid.
Great job here!
TracyHi!
>>I do have plenty of different toys and can change up. Heâs been doing a lot of grabbing at the toy, but I will definitely work on that. I want to use toys, just donât like the self-serving distraction that Iâm getting at the moment. Just another little challenge to train through. >>
Tell me more about the toy grabbing… is it when you are running little sequences? Or during the ‘in-between’ moments as you reset for the next rep? You can use food to help him line up and then toy as a reward. During sequenes, add in a marker that indicates he can grab the toy from your hand (you might already have one) and also try to note when it happens: after an error? When things are going really fast? When he needs more connection? We can get it sorted out!
Tracy
